Dear Diary,

I got up early this morning to clean the kitchen. I left a mess from cooking up veggies that I bought at the Farmers Market a week ago: Brussels sprouts, celery root, rutabaga, parnips,  and turnips. I froze most of the Brussels sprouts and roasted what was left. I chopped up and roasted the rest of the root veggies. I found a bag of Poblano peppers on the mark down shelf at Meijer yesterday, so I roasted them as well.

While I cleaned this morning I perversely listened to the Advent I evensong from Westminster Abbey. Here’s a link but it’s not a permanent one since BBC slyly pulls it shows after a few weeks from the available archive.

Eileen and I did go and purchase a Christmas tree after I finished my blog yesterday.  Then I went grocery shopping. After that we went to the hospital to take Mom her glasses and hearing aid. I also bought some roses to take to her. She seemed in pretty good spirits. They came to take her away to test her kidneys so we left.

I took Eileen home and she proceeded to bring the tree in and set it up. I went to church and practiced. I have been reading Bach’s Clavierübung III. I have learned a lot of it, but it’s interesting to play through it and think about the various beautiful settings. I was particularly caught up in his setting of “Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebote” (These are the Ten Commandments). I also have been reading my way through all my many volumes of Buxtehude. I brought home a copy of the Clavierübung III and the Buxtehude to read through the manual only settings at home. I spent some time with both this morning.

I am finding myself very discouraged and bitter about the United States lately. It’s a combination of the Ferguson and Staten Island grand juries and the way our public institutions and “servants” (Congress and the Supreme Court especially) are functioning and don’t seem to be much interested in the common good. I feel very distant from all this madness. Thank goodness for Bach and Buxtehude and James Joyce and so on.

Once again I have to quit.

sincerely,

Jupe